The present invention relates to insect and disease control systems and, more particularly, to a chemical delivery system that maintains a continuous chemical presence in the litter bed of a poultry house so as to decrease the population of virus carrying darkling beetles.
In the poultry industry, profit is largely dependent on the livability of the birds being raised and on maintaining efficient performance of the entire operation. Profit and loss are decided in hundredths of a penny. One well known problem with broilers is a small bug called a darkling beetle. In their natural environment they are not even noticed. Most of them live in roots of trees and plants, or just in topsoil, but in chicken houses it is far from their natural environment and their effects can be a major economic problem.
The “livability” of birds in a poultry operation refers to the degree to which the chickens are stressed, are properly nourished, and are maintained in good health. To the extent that the darkling beetles cause stress, cause the birds not to eat or drink appropriately, or become diseased, the birds fail to reach their full potential which decreases the profits of the poultry organization. This is understood better with a more detailed description of the problem. The following description is by way of example of how virus carrying beetles can affect profit.                Livability—Consider that a flock of chickens has just sold on any broiler farm, and if those birds had a disease such as REO Virus, the beetles present in a litter bed will become hosts for the REO Virus. The farmer prepares his farm for the next flock of baby chicks. The houses are set up, heated up, and then the baby chicks arrive and are placed in the houses with the infected beetles from the previous flock still in the previous flock's litter, potentially in large numbers. As soon as the starter feed is taken up from floor feeding (normally seven to twelve days old) the beetles turn to feed on anything they can, including dead birds, bird droppings, and any source of moisture.        Infecting the birds—The most common way of infecting the newly arrived birds is when the birds rest on the litter bed, the beetles bite the chicks and the birds contract the virus. Further, the infected bird drinks from the same drinker nipples that the other birds drink from, such that many more birds contract the virus as well. Once the virus spreads among the flock then the mortality rate increases greatly.        Stress—A happy bird produces a larger bird. When a birds environment is good it promotes good feed and water consumption and leads to a higher average in weight with good performance. By contrast, when the beetles continue to bite the birds, they become uncomfortable and stressed. This reduces feed and water consumption and leads to lower weight, lower performance, and lower profit to the farmer.        
There are numerous negative effects of an uncontrolled darkling beetle population. First, farmers get paid based on the weight of the chickens, so low average weight and high feed conversion reduces their profit. Second, beetle populations lead to energy loss to the poultry house. Specifically, one of the preferred places for darkling beetles to lay their eggs is in the walls in the installation. In doing so, the beetles lay their eggs and eat holes in the installation; therefore, they destroy the R-Value of the installation. Third, the beetles get into everything including computer controllers and, as a result, affect their functions, sometimes shorting out the controllers. Therefore, it is almost an understatement that uncontrolled darkling beetle population can result in millions of dollars in damage and lost profits.
Currently, beetle populations are controlled by large scale chemical spraying operations. While assumedly effective for their intended purposes, a major difficulty is that the litter bed and entire interior of a poultry house can only be sprayed when empty, i.e. when all of the birds have been moved out. A flock of birds is typically kept by a farmer for six to nine weeks, depending on the size requirements of the poultry integrator. So, if a chicken house is sprayed just prior to receiving a flock, it cannot be sprayed again until after that flock is grown and moved out. The obvious problem is that the beetles have plenty of time to repopulate and cause all of the problems discussed previously.
Therefore, it would be desirable to have a chemical delivery system for controlling a beetle population in a poultry house that maintains a continuous chemical presence for the constant suppression of darkling beetle populations. Further, it would be desirable to have a chemical delivery system in which the potency of the chemical can be regulated depending on the changing environment of a poultry house.